On Wednesday, October 28, Iranian news media reported that Tehran proposed changes to a U.N. deal on atomic fuel, making demands that appeared to challenge the basis of the agreement with the United States, France and Russia. Over the past year, Irans nuclear program has surged to become a point of fierce international contention. For this reason, Dr. Geoffrey Fordens visit to the Athenaeum to speak about nuclear nonproliferation and Irans initiatives could not be timelier.

Dr. Forden, P10, is a research associate with the Program on Science, Technology and Society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since 2000, his research at MIT since 2000 has included analysis of Russian and Chinese space system. He also studies how weapons proliferators acquire the technological knowledge and industrial infrastructure to produce weapons of mass destruction. In 2002-2003, Dr. Forden spent a year on leave from MIT to serve as the first Chief of Multidiscipline Analysis Section for UNMOVIC, the UN agency responsible for verifying and monitoring the dismantlement of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

Previous to coming to MIT, he was a strategic weapons analyst in the National Security Division of the Congressional Budget Office, performing research on ballistic missile defense and Russias early warning satellites, among other topics. Dr. Forden has provided commentary on international weapons testing across the world, especially by rogue states. He holds a doctorate in experimental high-energy physics from the University of Indiana and previously worked at a number of international particle accelerator centers.